


Freed In Fire

by idrilsdarkwritings (idrilhadhafang)



Category: Pet Sematary - Stephen King
Genre: Adult Ellie Creed, Angst, Gen, Mercy Killing, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 10:43:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20619722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilsdarkwritings
Summary: The final death of Rachel Creed.





	Freed In Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Tragedy
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: I should be working on my Pet Sematary multichapter sequel, I know.

  
Ellie Creed hadn’t thought she would actually get in the right strike with the kitchen knife against her mother, and yet, as she did, it was like the face of her mother changed — so many faces, some that Ellie didn’t recognize, distorted with the sort of hate that would have been so alien to Rachel Creed in life.   
  
There was a moment, just a moment, where the ever-changing faces seemed to stop, freezing itself on the face of Ellie’s real mother — the same woman who had read her stories at night and no doubt sang to her as a baby. Stunned, almost like she was coming out of a trance — or even just a bad dream.   
  
“Ellie?” she said. “What...happened to me?”  
  
Ellie lowered her knife cautiously. She had to be careful, of course — her mother could be trying to trick her. Or at least that thing that had possessed her mother.   
  
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Ellie said. Her voice cracked, despite herself. “I never wanted this to happen. I would have given...anything for this not to happen.”  
  
“Wasn’t your fault,” Rachel said. Her voice still sounded gritty and filled with dirt, but it was softer now. “God, I remember now. I saw her, El. I saw your aunt. Zelda. I never really told you about her. I lied to you, because I couldn’t bear to think about it. And I saw...Gage...”  
  
“Mom, don’t talk,” Ellie said. “You’re bleeding.” Dead was better, but how could anyone say that, really, when she’d had to kill her own mother to save her from herself?  
  
Rachel sighed, a sort of death-rattle-like sigh. "I didn’t do any of it right,” she said. “I didn’t tell you the truth. About death, about your aunt.”  
  
“I know why.” Considering how even the thought of Church, long ago, buried with all the other animals in the main Pet Sematary, had terrified her — Ellie knew why.   
  
“I didn’t do it right now,” Rachel said. "I’m sorry, Ellie.”  
  
“Don’t talk like that,” Ellie said. “Ever. You weren’t perfect. I don’t know many parents who are. But I am...I am lucky that you were my mom." A beat. “I’m remembering you like that. Not what you did resurrected — what you did before that. I’m gonna bury you proper, Mom. You can rest now.”  
  
“Rest. I suppose...it’s better this way.”   
  
“I’ll stay with you, Mom. Until you sleep.”  
  
Rachel reached up just then with an almost wasted hand, brushing away hair from Ellie’s eyes. "I love you, Ellie,” she said. “Now get up. Run fast, and run far, and don’t hesitate. Save Ludlow. Save yourself.”  
  
Ellie smiled, but it was tearful all the while. “I love you, Mom.”  
  
Rachel Creed’s eyes seemed to go distant in that moment, as if seeing something that Ellie couldn’t. “Zelda?” she said. “It’s been so long, and I’m so sorry...”  
  
Her face went still in that moment, and it was like in that moment, Rachel Dory Creed faced death not with the fear that had paralyzed her for most of her life since she was only eight, but with a peace that she had only acquired now, when she died for the final time.   
  
Ellie closed Rachel’s eyes in that moment. If not for the injuries that her mother had obtained, her slide into death could have been mistaken for falling asleep. She was safe now. Undisturbed. Even knowing that her mother had found peace in death...it would have been easy to repeat her father’s mistakes (a loving man with terrible judgment) and resurrect her mother. But it would have been too cruel to do so.   
  
Ellie just had to finish the job. Stop herself from being tempted.   
  
She was outside when she set their old Ludlow house on fire. And stepping away from the fire rising into the sky, Ellie could only hope that her mother was finally at rest.  
  
“Go, Mom,” she murmured. “Be at peace.”  
  
There was still work she had to do. She had to find the source of the evil behind the Pet Sematary — and deal with its many servants. And she’d do it for all those people that the Sematary had all but devoured. It was time it all ended, before anyone else died horribly.   
  
This, Ellie knew, was war.


End file.
